The Ways of Modern Life: In Search of Silence

It's a quiet, sunny early afternoon, and I thought it might be nice to turn on some of my favorite writing music, leave the window open a little bit and sit outside on our back patio where I could hear the music but also be out in the fresh summer air.

I often use music as a creative accompaniment when I'm writing; somehow it helps to get me in the right frame of mind to get the words to flow. I'm in need of that, because lately the words have flowed somewhat awkwardly.

So I get the "setup done and settle in outside my home office window, about six feet from my window which is cracked just enough that the music filters out in the background but the cat can't get out, and I'm looking out across the peaceful vista of our back yard, filled with blooming lavender and other flowers while a few bugs and butterflies lazily circle in the afternoon sun.

But it's not really working.

In Search of SILENCE, Please!

The problem is that there's a constant flow of cars on the adjacent road outside; the person two houses down has their air conditioner running, were evidently in the outer flight path for approaches to Seatac Airport today (because of the wind direction), somebody's using a weed whacker somewhere in the neighborhood and there's the sporadic piercing whine of someone using a table saw in their garage.

My point being the ambient noise is so significant that it basically drowns out the music, and the whole idea of this being an environment of Silence has been utterly defeated!

At that point I recognize that the conditions I was trying to replicate were drawn from memories of sitting on the back terrace, late in the afternoon sun, at my Auntie's summer house in Denmark. Whereas the scenario here is essentially not that different, the environment is so much noisier.

With that bit of reality now bouncing around my brain, the experience served as an unpleasantly poignant reminder that here in the USA we're always busy with something; there's always industry; there's always something going on; people are always doing things and the Fine Art of just sitting down and doing virtually nothing — or just thinking about stuff or studying nature — barely exists.

And yes, I do live here by choice...

Slightly saddened by my predicament, I picked up my coffee cup and my laptop and went back inside. And retreated to the relative silence of my office space where I can at least close the door and windows, and not have to deal with the ambient noise from the outside.

When did life become so noisy? It didn't always used to be like this... did it? And will we ever return to a place where life is not so noisy? Sadly, the cynic and me has his doubts that such a thing will ever be possible as we continue to beat back nature in service of becoming an ever more automated and mechanized world.

There are times when I'm quite grateful for being almost 63! I'm not sure I actually want to be around to experience the noise level we might end up with, 25 or 50 years from now.

But I guess it's part of the human condition that regardless of what's going on around us we're all so remarkable in our ability to adapt to the environment around us. And so, my future self might wistfully recall the "silence" of my present self's noise back yard!

The question I leave on the plate is whether or not the environment we are creating for ourselves is really a desirable one in the long run...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your weekend!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

---

Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!

Proud member of the Silver Bloggers Community on Hive!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2023-07-22 12:55 PDT
0895/2150